OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


MA/AILTON 


PRESENTED  BY  FREDERICK  W.  PUTNAM 


AMERICAN 


DIALOGUES  OF  THE  DEAD 


AND 


DIALOGUES   OF  THE  AMERICAN  DEAD, 


PHILADELPHIA: 

PUBLISHED  BY  EDWARD  EARLE 

William  Fry,  Printer. 

1814, 


INTRODUCTION.  (2<3UJt 


IK  reading  the  Dialogues  of  Lucian,  of  Plato  and 
Cicero  among  the  ancients,  and  those  of  Fontenelle, 
Fenelon,  Lyttleton  and  others  among  the  moderns,  the 
idea  was  suggested  to  the  author  of  these  Dialogues, 
that  the  same  vehicle  of  instruction  and  amusement 
might  be  employed  to  the  advantage  of  his  country- 
men.  The  writers  before  mentioned  had  each  of  them 
his  separate  object  in  view,  in  resorting  to  this  mode 
of  communication.  His  object  is  simply  to  endeavour* 
to  be  of  some  little  service  to  a  country  that  he  loves., 
by  inculcating  upon  his  fellow-citizens  sound  princi 
ples  in  politics,  literature,  morals  and  religion.  His  in 
tention,  should  he  meet  with  sufficient  encouragement 
from  the  public,  is  to  continue  these  Dialogues  in  a 
series  of  numbers,  under  the  heads  of  the  political, 
literary,  moral  and  religious.  The  two  first  of  the  poli 
tical  he  now  offers  to  the  public  in  his  first  number,, 
Scrupulously  avoiding  cither  to  utter  the  language  of 
party  or  to  imbibe  its  spirit,  he  has  confined  his  view 
solely  to  those  great  principles  in  which  all  ought  to 
agree,  but  against  which  all  in  their  turns  are  alike 
prone  to  trespass*  And  in  the  investigation  of  all  sub 

M632651 


jects,  but  ntore  especially  those  which  are  political,  it 
is  of  the  greatest  importance  frequently  to  revert  back 
to  fundamental  principles.  He  indulges  an  humble 
hope  that  the  speeches  which  he  has  put  into  the 
mouths  of  those  illustrious  patriots  and  statesmen, 
whom  he  has  chosen  as  his  dialogists,  though  not 
such  as  they  might  themselves  have  spoken,  at  any 
rate  will  be  found  not  utterly  unworthy  of  them.  The 
author  has  endeavoured  to  transfuse  into  them  that 
spirit  which  breathes  in  their  several  works.  He  is 
fully  sensible  of  the  difficulty  of  his  undertaking,  and 
should  have  abandoned  it  in  utter  despair,  had  he  not 
been  encouraged  by  the  hope  of  calling  into  the  view 
of  both  those  parties  which  now  engross  the  politics  of 
his  country,  some  fundamental  points  in  which  they 
should  unite,  and  thereby  preventing  them,  if  not 
from  indulging  intemperate  heats,  at  all  events  from 
being  transported  to  those  excesses  which  may  prove 
fatal  to  the  republic.  Upon  points  of  minor  impor 
tance,  party  animosity,  under  certain  restrictions,  may 
innocently  exhaust  itself,  but  on  these  we  should  say 
to  party  rage,  as  in  the  fiat  of  Heaven  was  said  to  the 
ocean,  thus  far  shalt  thou  go  and  no  farther,  and  here 
shall  thy  proud  waves  be  stayed.  The  author  of  these 
Dialogues  is  a  native  American,  and  has  been  accus 
tomed  from  the  earliest  period  of  life,  to  study  and  ad 
mire  the  constitution  of  his  country.  The  sentiments 
of  his  youth  have  been  confirmed  by  the  reflections 
and  observations  of  his  more  mature  years.  He  still 
regards  that  constitution,  as  one  of  the  proudest  mo- 


numents  of  human  wisdom.  His  best  hopes  for  his 
country  are  involved  in  its  success,  and  surely  its  fate 
depends  in  a  great  degree  upon  ourselves.  If  we  are 
determined,  at  all  hazards,  to  pull  down  and  destroy  it, 
it  will  be  wonderful,  indeed,  if  it  has  strength  to  resist 
us;  but  if  we  are  resolved  to  save  it,  there  can  be  no 
solid  reason  given  why  it  should  not  survive.  It  is 
hoped,  at  all  events,  that  amidst  the  most  violent  con 
flicts  of  party,  and  even  the  din  of  arms,  there  are  some 
inclined  to  listen  to  the  counsels  of  prudence,  modera 
tion  and  temperance. 

If  encouraged  by  the  public,  it  is  the  intention  of 
the  author  to  proceed,  in  due  time,  with  the  literary, 
moral  and  religious  dialogues,  in  all  of  which  he  shall 
select  such  topics  as  will  be  the  most  useful  and  inter 
esting  to  his  fellow-citizens.  The  present  situation  of 
his  country  is  too  serious  to  permit  him  in  this  num 
ber  to  assume  any  other  than  a  grave  aspect.  In  some 
of  those  that  follow  he  expects  occasionally  to  relax 
his  muscles  into  a  smile,  and  endeavour  to  amuse  as 
well  as  lecture  his  readers.  He  throws  himself,  not 
without  sensibility,  upon  the  candour  and  impartiality 
of  the  public.  By  its  decision,  after  a  fair  hearing,  he 
is  willing  to  abide,  and  promises  not  to  murmur 
at  the  sentence  although  it  should  be  against  him 


AMERICAN 

DIALOGUES  OF  THE  DEAD, 


DIALOGUE  I. 

WASHINGTON,  ALFRED  AND  WILLIAM  TELL. 
WASHINGTON. 

THERE  was  an  interesting  wildness,  like  that  of 
your  native  mountains,  in  the  spirit  of  liberty  exhi 
bited  by  you,  William  Tell,  and  your  illustrious  co 
adjutors  in  the  cause  of  Switzerland.  I  could  never 
peruse,  without  a  mixture  of  admiration  and  enthu 
siasm,  the  events  of  your  life,  during  the  short  but 
glorious  career  which  you  ran,  while  acting  as  the 
champion  of  your  country's  freedom.  They  who  look 
back  upon  your  conduct,  without  transporting  them 
selves  to  the  period  in  which  you  lived,  and  adverting 
to  the  circumstance  that  Switzerland,  and  many  other 
nations  of  Europe,  was  then  subject  to  the  iron  grasp 
of  feudal  tyranny,  will  award  you  but  a  small  portion 
of  the  praise  which  you  merited  in  that  heroic  enter- 
prize.  How  noble  was  the  indignation  which  you  dis- 


8 

covered  at  the  cruel,  wanton  and  atrocious  acts  of 
despotism,  practised  by  the  tyrant  Gesler;  and  how 
daring  the  magnanimity  and  heroism  with  which  you 
breasted  yourself  to  the  shock  of  arbitrary  power,  and 
broke  asunder  the  chains  with  which  he  had  fettered 
your  country!  There  is  something  so  singular  and  ex 
traordinary  in  the  incidents  related  in  this  portion  of 
your  life,  that  we  should  almost  feel  inclined  to  ascribe 
their  origin  to  the  airy  dreams  of  fiction  and  romance, 
and  to  assign  them  a  place  among  the  fabulous  exploits 
of  Hercules  and  Theseus,  were  they  not  established  by 
the  sober  and  enlightened  testimony  of  more  recent 
and  authentic  history.  How  very  interesting  and  ro 
mantic,  for  instance,  are  the  circumstances  recorded, 
of  your  spirited  refusal  to  render  obeisance  to  that  ri 
diculous  pageant  which  the  tyrant  erected  at  Altorf,  to 
mock  and  insult  the  good  sense  of  the  people;  of  the 
cruel  punishment  to  which  you  were  condemned  by 
him;  of  the  wonderful  dexterity  with  which  you  shot 
the  apple  from  the  head  of  your  child;  of  your  almost 
miraculous  deliverance  from  the  hands  of  your  op 
pressor  while  he  was  transporting  you  over  the  Lake 
Lucerne,  to  imprisonment,  bonds,  and  perhaps  to  your 
fate;  and  of  the  happy  opportunity  which,  on  that  occa 
sion,  was,  at  length,  presented  to  you  of  directing  an 
arrow  to  the  heart  of  the  execrable  monster,  and  at 
once  relieving  Switzerland  from  her  sufferings  and  her 
fears!  Through  the  medium  of  these  transactions  we 
are  enabled  to  trace  in  you  the  lineaments  of  one  of 
those  bold,  impracticable  and  invincible  minds  which 


are  formed  to  become  the  scourge  of  tyrants  and  the 
deliverers  of  their  country.  By  these  generous  and 
disinterested  acts  of  heroic  virtue,  you  entitled  your 
memory  to  perpetual  respect  and  veneration,  and  for 
these  are  you  now  enjoying  the  glorious  rewards  of 
Elysium.  Such  are  the  happiness  and  glory  reserved, 
in  the  wise  order  of  the  universe,  for  the  benefactors 
of  their  race!  How  delightful  must  have  been  your 
sensations,  after  your  toils  and  dangers  were  ended  in 
the  complete  deliverance  of  your  country,  to  have 
found  yourself  so  endeared  to  the  feelings,  and  conse 
crated  in  the  grateful  remembrance,  of  your  fellow- 
citizens,  and  to  have  heard  your  name  re-echoed 
through  the  valleys  of  Switzerland  in  your  native  airs! 
Could  the  tyrants  and  oppressors  of  mankind  once  be 
made  sensible  of  the  pure  and  exalted  enjoyment  to  be 
derived  from  becoming  the  objects  of  gratitude,  con 
fidence  and  attachment  to  the  people,  their  self  love 
alone  would  triumph  over  their  pride  and  ambition, 
and,  foregoing  their  lust  of  power  and  domination, 
they  would  learn  to  consult  only  the  welfare  and 
happiness  of  their  subjects.  What  is  that  pleasure 
which  is  to  be  derived  from  the  grandeur  and  magni 
ficence  of  a  throne,  the  splendor  of  imperial  rank,  the 
pomp  and  pageantry  of  a  court,  and  the  venal  adula 
tions  and  obsequious  homage  of  courtiers  and  syco 
phants  and  slaves,  in  the  midst  of  all  which,  perhaps, 
the  heart  is  the  prey  of  distrust  and  anxious  cares 
and  torturing  fears;  when  compared  to  that  pure,  un 
alloyed  and  vivid  enjoyment  which  fills,  occupies  and 

B 


10 

transports  the  soul  when  we  are  receiving  the  free, 
unsolicited  and  unrestrained  homage  of  a  grateful 
people? 

WILLIAM  TELL. 

I  do  not  wonder,  General  Washington,  that  you  ex 
press  yourself  with  so  much  evident  sensibility  upon 
these  subjects.  Never  did  man  more  richly  deserve 
the  gratitude  and  affection  of  his  fellow-citizens,  and 
never  did  man  receive  more  flattering  demonstrations 
of  them.  If  the  efforts  which  were  made  by  me  in  the 
deliverance  of  Switzerland,  spirited  indeed,  I  am  ready 
to  admit,  (for  I  have  in  me  a  soul  which  could  never 
brook  the  ignominy  and  baseness  of  servitude,)  if  the 
efforts,  I  say,  which  were  made  by  me  in  the  deliver 
ance  of  Switzerland,  so  suddenly  commenced,  so  short 
in  their  continuance,  and  so  speedily  terminated,  have 
raised  me  so  high  in  your  estimation,  what  honours 
did  not  you  merit  from  the  American  nation  for  your 
fatigues,  anxieties,  watchings  and  incessant  toils,  while 
at  the  head  of  its  armies  during  a  long,  perilous,  and 
bloody  war:  and  for  your  subsequent  useful  exertions 
in  obtaining  for  it  by  the  weight  of  your  unbounded 
influence,  and  bequeathing  it  with  your  latest  breath, 
that  invaluable  inheritance,  a  wise  and  admirable  con- 
stitution  of  government?  Your  greatest  praise  was  that 
unshaken  fortitude  with  which  you  bore  up  under  the 
severest  reverses  of  fortune,  and  pertinaciously  adher 
ed  to  the  cause  of  your  country,  amidst  those  over 
whelming  difficulties  and  disasters,  which  would  have 


11 

appalled  the  mind  and  subdued  the  resolutions  of  al 
most  all  other  men.  All  circumstances  considered,  I 
regard  your  successful  achievement  of  American  in 
dependence,  as  the  sublimest  effort  of  military  skill 
and  prowess  that  was  ever  witnessed.  And  after  you 
had  thus  by  your  arms  become  the  saviour  of  your 
country,  what  consummate  talents  and  address  did 
you  display  as  a  statesman,  what  exalted  virtues  as  a 
man!  Nor  were  the  honours  and  rewards  with  which 
you  were  crowned  incommensurate  with  your  talents, 
your  services  and  your  virtues.  The  brightest  fictions 
of  fancy  and  romance  have  been  realized  in  your  life. 
When  your  toils  and  dangers  were  ended  with  the 
war,  and  you  were  elected  by  the  unsolicited  votes  of 
a  free  and  grateful  people  their  supreme  magistrate, 
the  splendor  of  royal  dignity  or  imperial  rank  would 
have  faded  before  the  lustre  of  your  glory.  At  every 
step  you  were  followed  by  the  acclamations  of  the 
people,  and  every  movement  you  made  through  your 
native  land,  was  more  illustrious  than  a  Roman  tri 
umph.  The  poets  of  your  infant  country,  in  no  vulgar 
strains,  have  already  sung  of  your  heroic  achieve 
ments;  orators  adorned  their  discourses  with  your 
name  and  exploits;  and  the  historic  muse  has  drawn 
from  the  events  of  your  life  some  of  her  richest  and 
most  invaluable  materials.  If  the  death  of  Germanicus 
filled  with  gloom  the  whole  Roman  empire,  the  news 
of  your  decease  vibrated  in  deep-toned  horror  through 
every  fibre  in  the  hearts  of  your  fellow- citizens.  Your 
glory,  however,  was  not  extinguished  in  the  grave. 


12 

but  rekindling  from  your  ashes,  only  burns  now  with 
a  higher  and  more  steady  lustre.  Your  name  is  em 
balmed  in  the  memory  of  your  countrymen.  The  first 
words  which  children  are  taught  to  lisp  is  that  of  the 
Father  of  their  Country;  the  painter  and  the  statuary 
have  exhausted  all  the  resources  of  their  arts  in  exhi 
biting  your  form  and  features;  and  your  image,  like  a 
household  god,  meets  the  eye  at  every  splendid  dwell 
ing  as  well  as  every  log-house  throughout  your  coun 
try.  The  shades  of  Titus  and  Marcus  Aurelius,  as 
well  as  Alfred  here  present  with  us,  all  of  whom  are 
enjoying  the  rewards  bestowed  in  this  place  upon  the 
benefactors  of  mankind,  may  envy  you  the  honours 
which  are  still  thickening  on  your  memory.  Had  you 
lived  in  the  days  of  pagan  superstition,  you  would 
have  been  deified  at  your  death.  The  English  justly 
regard  Alfred,  who  so  nobly  delivered  them  from  the 
incursions  and  dominion  of  the  Danes,  as  a  perfect 
model  of  a  virtuous  Prince;  and  the  Americans  may, 
with  still  greater  justice,  venerate  their  Washington, 
as  having  exhibited  an  example,  not  only  of  one  of  the 
greatest  Military  Chieftains,  and  most  able  Statesmen 
that  ever  lived,  but,  what  is  still  higher  eulogy,  of  a 
pure  and  incorruptible  Patriot. 

WASHINGTON, 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  merit  to  which  I  was 
entitled,  I  have  received  an  ample  recompense  in  the 
flattering  estimation  in  which  I  was  held  by  my  fellow- 
citizens  and  their  unabated  regard  during  the  whole  of 


13 

my  life,  and  in  the  still  higher  pleasure  which  I  now 
enjoy,  being  admitted  into  the  company  of  Epaminon- 
das,  Leonidas,  Cato,  Titus,  Marcus  Aurelius,  Alfred, 
William  Wallace,  and  all  the  celebrated  champions  of 
their  country's  rights  and   benefactors  of  mankind. 
Among  those  illustrious  sages  and  heroes,  who  by  the 
efforts  of  tkeir  genius  have  filled  the  lower  world  with 
their  renown,  and  have  contributed  to  enlighten,  to  hu 
manize  and  improve  their  race,  I  have  always  regarded 
Alfred  as  entitled  to  pre-eminent  claims.  Justly  has  he 
been  venerated  by  the  English,  through  every  period 
of  their  history,  as  the  perfect  model  of  an  unrivalled 
sage  and  patriot  king.  If  you,  William  Tell,  and  your 
colleagues  delivered  Switzerland  from  the  intolerable 
yoke  of  Albert  and  his  despicable  minions,  and  I  Ame 
rica  from  the  arbitrary  and  illegitimate  pretensions  of 
England,  Alfred  enjoys  the  immortal  honour  of  having 
relieved  his  country  from  the  ferocious  and  sanguinary 
despotism  of  the  Danes.  The  spirit  and  military  skill 
with  which  he  resisted  the  repeated  attacks  of  those 
barbarous  invaders — his  numerous  and  hard-fought 
"battles — his  signal  victories — the  unconquerable  firm 
ness  with  which  he  met  the  severest  losses  and  misfor 
tunes,  when  having  his  army  overpowered  by  superior 
numbers,  broken,  dispersed  and  dispirited,  and  he  him 
self  being  obliged  to  seek  his  safety  in  the  disguise  of 
a  peasant  and  perform  the  menial  offices  of  a  cow 
herd — the  pertinacity  with  which  under  all  these  dis 
couraging  and  dismaying  circumstances,  he  still  ad 
hered  to  the  sublime  purpose  of  effecting  his  country's 


14 

deliverance — the  promptness  and  impetuosity  with 
which  collecting  his  scattered  troops,  he  availed  him 
self  of  the  first  opportunity  to  pour  down  upon  his 
enemies,  again  discomfited  and  subdued  them — his 
lenity  and  hospitality  even  to  these  ferocious  invaders 
when  the  fortune  of  war  had  placed  them  in  his  power 
— all  these  considerations  prove  him  to  have  been  one 
of  the  greatest  heroes  and  best  men  that  ever  lived. 
His  glory  was  completed  by  his  subsequent  conduct 
on  re-ascending  his  throne.  If  before  he  had  displayed 
the  talents  of  a  gallant  and  able  general,  here  he  per 
formed  the  part  of  a  lawgiver  and  sage.  Under  his 
happy  sway,  the  wisest  and  most  wholesome  laws  were 
introduced,  the  welfare  and  happiness  of  his  people 
promoted  by  every  expedient  which  wisdom,  guided 
by  parental  affection,  could  devise,  and  their  rights 
scrupulously  regarded,  the  arts  and  sciences  were  en 
couraged,  colleges  founded  and  endowed,  commerce 
and  agriculture  promoted,  the  cities,  destroyed  by  his 
enemies,  rebuilt,  and  the  whole  nation  advanced  to  a 
state  of  prosperity  and  power  which  it  had  never  known 
before.  But  what  peculiarly  distinguished  Alfred  as  a 
sovereign,  and  should  endear  his  memory  to  the  wise 
and  good,  not  only  of  the  English,  but  of  every  age 
and  nation,  was  his  delicate  and  punctilious  regard  to 
the  rights  and  privileges  of  his  subjects.  So  great  was 
his  solicitude  on  this  point,  that  even  in  his  will,  he 
declared,  "  It  is  just  that  the  English  should  be  as 
free  as  their  own  thoughts."  Would  all  sovereigns  but 
follow  his  just  and  humane  example,  seldom  should 


15 

we  hear  of  those  tumults,  seditions  and  civil  broils 
which  so  often  convulse  the  world  and  fill  it  with 
blood. 

ALFRED. 

There,  Washington,  you  touch  a  cord  that  never 
fails  to  vibrate  in  my  heart.  I  never  recollect  the  good 
which  I  did  to  my  people,  and  the  virtuous  part  I  acted 
among  them,  but  my  bosom  is  thrilled  with  delight. 
It  is  in  doing  good  to  the  people,  in  resorting  to  every 
expedient  to  mitigate  their  sufferings,  and  like  a  kind 
and  benignant  parent  dispensing  prosperity  and  hap 
piness  among  them,  that  a  sovereign  or  ruler  of  a  na 
tion,  establishes  his  claims  to  empire  and  authority. 
The  reflection  which  always  afforded  me  more  plea 
sure  than  all  the  splendor  of  royalty  and  the  caresses 
and  homage  of  courtiers,  was  that  by  personal  ser 
vices,  by  the  substantial  benefits  I  had  conferred,  I  had 
purchased  a  title  to  the  confidence  and  attachment  of 
my  subjects,  and  that  the  influence  which  I  had  so 
justly  obtained  over  them,  was  exercised  solely  and 
supremely  with  a  view  to  their  welfare.  The  substan 
tial  and  permanent  interests  of  the  people  is  the  only 
legitimate  end  to  the  accomplishment  of  which  a  ruler 
can  direct  his  exertions.  He  holds  his  station  under  A 
high  responsibility  to  heaven,  as  its  minister  and  vice 
gerent,  and  as  soon  as  he  loses  sight  of  the  interests  of 
the  nation,  he  forfeits  his  claim  to  the  dignified  post  he 
occupies.  In  this  respect,  what  a  sublime  example  has 
been  exhibited  by  Washington  to  the  potentates  and 


16 

rulers  of  the  earth!  How  unambitious,  disinterested 
and  incorruptible  was  he!  Instead  of  abusing  his  im 
mense  influence  and  weight  of  character  in  the  aggran 
dizement  of  himself  and  family,  or  like  Cromwell,  in 
order  to  elevate  himself  to  supreme  power,  becoming 
"  guilty  of  his  country's  blood,"  he  sighs  only  for  the 
quiet  retreat  of  Mount  Vernon,  and  like  Cincinnatus 
to;"  return  to  his  plow.  Honours  and  rewards,  plen- 
teously  as  his  country  showered  them  upon  his  head, 
were  unsought  by  him,  and  were  the  spontaneous  effu 
sions  of  a  people's  gratitude.  How  worthy  of  a  seat  in 
these  realms  of  light  and  happiness,  is  a  soul  thus 
fraught  with  the  sacred  and  celestial  fires  of  virtue! 
But  amidst  this  rich  harvest  of  well-earned  fame  which 
you  enjoyed,  Washington,  and  while  in  all  points  you 
were  faithful  to  your  own  glory,  have  you  not  failed  in 
one  particular,  of  vital  importance  to  your  country,  and 
with  which  her  future  destinies  are  intimately  con- 
nected?  Should  you  not  have  exercised  your  unbound 
ed  influence  in  giving  to  your  fellow-citizens  a  more 
efficient  and  durable  form  of  government?  This  was 
an  object  altogether  impracticable  to  William  Tell 
and  his  noble  auxiliaries,  since  their  views  were  limit 
ed  to  the  deliverance  of  a  few  Cantons  of  Switzerland 
from  the  immediate  pressure  of  an  insupportable  des 
potism,  and  even  the  Helvetic  league  which  was 
afterwards  formed  was  a  feeble  and  ineffectual  union 
preserved  from  dissolution  only  by  the  pressing  fear  of 
foreign  danger.  But  with  you  and  your  country  the 
case  was  widely  different.  Instead  of  that  feeble  and 


17 

inefficient  government,  which  the  collisions  of  the  dif 
ferent  parties  have  already  shaken,  several  times,  well* 
nigh  to  dissolution,  and  which  is  actually,  at  this  mo- 
ment,  tottering  under  the  shock  of  a  foreign  war,  why 
did  you  not  bestow  on  them  a  constitution  which,  like 
that  I  gave  to  England,  could  control,  if  not  entirely 
subdue  the  violence  of  domestic  faction,  meet  un 
hurt  and  undismayed  the  storm  of  foreign  war,  and 
even  triumph  over  the  devastations  of  Time  himself? 

WASHINGTON, 

And  there,  Alfred,  you  touch  a  subject  which  never 
fails  to  awake  within  me  the  deepest  sensibility.  In 
the  fate  of  that  frame  of  civil  government,  and  those 
free  institutions  both  political  and  religious  which  I 
gave  to  the  American  nation,  I  cannot  but  feel  the 
most  lively  interest.  It  is  natural  that  you  should  ad 
mire  that  form  of  civil  polity  which  was  introduced 
into  England  by  your  grandfather  and  firmly  esta 
blished  by  yourself,  and  which,  after  the  various 
changes  and  modifications  it  has  undergone  from 
time,  accident  and  numerous  revolutions,  it  would 
discover  a  mere  prurient  attachment  to  republican;- 
ism,  as  well  as  a  stupid  prejudice  to  deny,  now  pre 
sents  to  view  a  superb  monument  of  human  wisdom 
and  has  advanced  your  nation  to  an  enviable  state  of 
power  and  prosperity.  Nevertheless  while  I  thus  with 
out  hesitation  acknowledge  the  excellence  of  your  form 
^f  government  and  its  superiority  to  that  of  any  other 
nation  in  Europe,  I  as  freely  and  candidly  declare 

C 


18 

that,  whatever  may  be  the  imperfections  which  some 
politicians  imagine  they  perceive  in  the  American  con- 
stitution,  I  give  it  an  ardent  and  decided  preference  to 
your's.  Some  difficulties  and  obstructions  indeed,  have 
been  found  to  attend  the  carrying  of  this  frame  of  go 
vernment  into  full  and  effectual  operation,  but  these 
have  not  yet  extinguished  my  enthusiasm  in  its  favour. 
Availing  themselves  of  the  lessons  taught  them  by  the 
long  and  oftentimes  calamitous  experience  of  your 
country,  whose  history  is  pregnant  with  political  in 
struction,  the  Americans  have  founded  a  government 
into  which  are  more  liberally  incorporated  the  elements 
of  civil  and  political  liberty.  It  is  admitted  that  this 
government  in  which  such  numerous  checks  and  re 
straints  are  imposed  upon  its  departments,  and  in  which 
at  the  same  time,  are  so  plentifully  interwoven  the  prin 
ciples  of  freedom,  is  an  experiment;  but  it  is  an  experi 
ment  worthy  of  those  humane  and  illustrious  sages  who 
modelled  it,  and  glorious  will  be  its  ultimate  success. 
Should  it  finally  triumph  over  the  difficulties  with 
which  it  has  to  contend  and  in  all  respects  prove  ade 
quate  to  the  great  purposes  for  which  it  was  instituted, 
it  will  mark  a  new  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  human 
kind.  And  why  should  it  not  succeed?  Who  has  as 
certained  the  precise  quantum  of  political  liberty  which 
may  be  admitted  into  the  constitution  of  a  country, 
without  so  far  enfeebling  and  vitiating  the  system  as  to 
expose  it  to  a  violent  and  premature  fate?  Who  has 
marked  the  exact  boundaries  that  must  be  drawn  be 
tween  the  prerogatives  of  the  government  and  the 


19 

liberties  of  the  people,  in  order  to  communicate  stabi 
lity  to  the  first  and  perpetuity  to  the  last?  As  natural 
philosophy  is  founded  on  physical  experiment,  so  all 
political  science  which  is  solid  and  substantial  must  rest 
upon  moral  experiment,  the  history  and  experience  of 
mankind.  To  this  we  must  appeal  as  the  ultimate  and 
most  infallible  test  of  truth.  In  the  reigns  of  Elizabeth 
in  England,  of  James  and  of  Charles,  what  would  have 
been  thought  of  the  present  freedom  of  the  British 
constitution?  Would  not  a  system  of  government  con 
ducted  upon  such  principles  as  are  now  prevalent  and 
familiar  in  that  country,  have  been  thought  as  imprac 
ticable  and  Utopian,  as  the  American  constitutions  are 
now  regarded  by  many  of  the  politicians  of  Europe? 
While  we  reject  with  disgust  the  stupid  doctrine  of 
the  perfectibility  of  man  or  of  those  governments  in 
stituted  to  control  him,  let  us  not  rush  unadvisedly  into 
the  opposite  extreme  of  denying  him  the  capacity  to 
enjoy  the  blessings  of  a  just  and  rational  liberty.  If  we 
must  err,  and  to  this  we  are  all  liable  from  the  fallibi 
lity  of  the  human  understanding,  it  is  surely  more  hu 
mane  and  virtuous  to  be  mistaken  in  extending  too  far, 
rather  than  in  limiting  too  much,  the  principles  of  civil 
and  political  liberty. 

But  you  have  alleged,  Alfred,  as  an  objection 
against  the  American  form  of  government,  that  under 
its  sway  the  country  is  subject  to  violent  convulsions, 
and  seem  to  regard  these  as  the  prognostics  of  its 
speedy  and  final  dissolution.  And  where  in  the  whole 


history  of  man  can  the  government  be  pointed  to  which 
has  been  exempted  from  these  evils?  To  what  sudden 
and  violent  revolutions  is  even  the  despotism  of  Tur 
key  subject,  and  all  the  despotisms  of  the  east,  under 
whose  baleful  influence,  those  delicate  plants  the  rights 
of  the  people  have  never  been  allowed  to  spring  up  or 
grow.  In  these  countries  the  storms  of  revolution  are 
as  sudden  and  destructive  as  those  tempests  which  are 
engendered  in  their  torrid  zone.  And  has  your  own 
monarchy,  stable  as  you  represent  it,  enjoyed  the  en 
viable  privilege  of  being  freed  from  these  casualties 
and  disasters?  Oftentimes,  as  you  well  know,  has  the 
throne  been  shaken  to  its  base,  and  once  it  was  crum 
bled  into  a  heap  of  ruins.  From  the  period  of  the  tur 
bulent  sway  of  the  Barons,  until  the  days  of  king  Wil 
liam,  revolution  succeeded  revolution,  under  all  of 
which  vicissitudes  the  nation  endured  every  variety  of 
suffering,  and  under  some,  was  made  to  bleed  at  every 
pore.  That  the  American  republic,  therefore,  is  sub 
ject  to  violent  agitations  and  convulsions  from  the 
conflicts  of  party,  is  no  uncommon  fate,  and  if  the  peo 
ple  are  faithful  to  themselves  and  the  honour  and  glory 
of  their  country,  these  storms,  like  those  of  the  ele 
ments,  will  pass  harmlessly  by,  serving  only  to  venti 
late  and  purify  the  political  atmosphere.  On  this  point, 
however,  I  candidly  admit,  I  am  not  without  my 
anxiety  and  apprehensions,  (such  as  immortals  feel), 
so  much  depends  in  our  republic  upon  the  good 
sense,  the  virtue,  the  intelligence,  the  moderation  and 
patriotism  of  the  people.  The  great  misfortune  with 


21 

republics  has  ever  been,  that  the  members  of  it  have 
exhibited  a  discontent,  restlessness  and  turbulence  dur 
ing  the  enjoyment  of  their  liberties  which  have  never 
been  quelled  but  by  the  iron  hand  of  a  master.  May 
heaven  avert  this  fate  from  my  beloved  country!  The 
privilege  of  foreseeing  the  fate  of  empires  is  not  be 
stowed  even  upon  immortals,  but  reserved  as  the  dis 
tinguishing  prerogative  of  the  great  Supreme;  but  con 
fident  I  am,  that  by  wise  and  moderate  counsels,  by  a 
just  and  equitable  administration  of  the  government, 
by  calling  into  operation  all  those  moral  causes  which 
tend  to  humanize,  enlighten  and  purify  the  public 
mind,  the  American  republic  may  long  protract  if 
not  finally  avoid  this  destiny.  That  there  will  be  occa 
sionally  violent  and  embittered  conflicts  of  party,  is  to 
be  expected  under  a  free  government.  These  are 
storms  naturally  engendered  in  the  atmosphere  of 
freedom.  They  are  at  once  a  proof,  a  pledge,  and  un 
der  wise  and  wholesome  restrictions,  a  guarantee  of 
the  liberties  of  the  people.  So  far  from  countenancing 
those  wicked  political  persecutions  by  which  a  domi 
nant  party  may  attempt  to  quell  the  murmurs  of  oppo 
sition,  I  would  not  entirely  silence  their  bickerings  if 
I  could.  If  the  oppositions  of  party  be  conducted  upon 
fair,  liberal  and  manly  principles — if  a  devoted  attach 
ment  to  our  constitution  and  laws  forms  a  bond  of 
union  between  the  most  bitter  and  irreconcileable  po 
litical  opponents — if  the  indivisible  union  of  the  states 
becomes  a  rallying  point  in  all  conjunctures  of  emer 
gency  and  danger — if  the  safety  and  prosperity  of  the 


22 

great  republic  be  the  polar  star,  towards  which  the 
efforts  of  all  are  invariably  directed,  whatever  may  be 
the  prevailing  difference  of  opinions  as  to  the  wisest 
and  best  plans  of  civil  policy — the  great  and  perma 
nent  interests  of  the  nation  are  still  secure,  notwith 
standing  the  temporary  paroxysms  into  which  she  may 
be  thrown  by  the  contests  of  party  animosity,  or  the 
partial  injury  she  sustains  from  the  unsound  policy  of 
any  given  administration  of  government.  An  indisso 
luble  union  of  the  states,  the  permanence  and  inviola 
bility  of  our  constitution  and  laws,  should  be  the  watch 
words  at  which  every  American  heart  should  thrill, 
and  which  every  American  tongue  should  respond 
with  enthusiasm.  Palsied  be  the  head  that  projects  a 
separation  of  the  states,  and  leprous  the  hand  that  would 
dare  attempt  the  demolition  of  our  present  constitution 
and  laws, 


DIALOGUE  II. 

WASHINGTON,  HAMILTON,  AND  FISHER  AMES. 

AMES. 

It  appears  evident  to  my  mind,  that  the  United 
States  must  separate,  and  that  all  the  evils  which, 
during  my  lifetime,  I  foresaw  and  predicted,  are  upon 
the  very  point  of  breaking  forth.  The  silken  band 
which  connects  together  these  confederated  republics, 
has  been  gradually  frittered  away,  and  will  soon  be  cut 
asunder.  The  train  is  already  laid,  and  wants  only  the 
application  of  the  match  to  produce  an  explosion  which 
will  convulse  the  continent,  and  afterwards  consume 
it  with  a  mighty  conflagration.  I  faithfully  forewarned 
the  American  nation  of  the  approach  of  these  calami 
ties,  but  they  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  my  admonitions,  and 
must  now  meet  the  consequences.  I  apprised  them 
that  that  cloud  which  in  my  days  was  no  larger  than  a 
man's  hand,  would  soon  overspread  the  land  with  its 
deadly  shade  and  deluge  it  with  mischief.  My  predic 
tions  are  now  receiving  a  complete  and  fearful  ac 
complishment.  I  consider  the  American  nation,  at  this 
moment,  as  standing  upon  the  very  brink  of  a  preci 
pice,  at  whose  feet  lies  the  horrible  gulph  of  a  civil 
war.  They  have  but  one  step  more  to  take,  and  they 
plunge  into  it. 


HAMILTON. 

Amidst  all  tbat  sterling  worth  and  distinguished 
greatness,  Mr.  Ames,  which  no  one  can  more  highly 
estimate  than  myself,  and  which  undoubtedly  entitle 
you  to  rank  among  the  first  and  best  men,  America  or 
perhaps  any  other  nation  has  produced,  you  seem  to 
have  had  a  constitutional  tendency  to  high- colouring 
in  your  representations  of  things,  and  a  kind  of  rheto 
rical  caricaturing  in  description.  Whether  it  arose  from 
the  amazing  fertility  of  your  fancy  (and  this  faculty 
was  certainly  in  you  a  soil  in  which  grew  sponta 
neously  flowers  of  every  variety  of  fragrance  and  hue,) 
or  that  the  hectic  which  shed  its  unnatural  and  intem 
perate  glows  through  your  body,  transfused  them  also, 
in  some  degree,  to  your  mind,  from  the  intimate  con 
nection  and  sympathy  known  to  subsist  between  the 
one  and  the  other,  I  pretend  not  to  determine;  but 
certain  it  is,  that  to  this  circumstance  alone  is  to  be 
ascribed  the  fault  which  blemishes  your,  otherwise, 
masterly  and  admirable  political  writings.  These  pro 
ductions  are  subject  to  the  same  objection  which  was 
brought  against  the  pictures  of  a  celebrated  painter, 
who  was  said  to  take  pleasure  in  exhibiting  objects  too 
horrible  to  be  contemplated.  The  blood  curdles  and 
the  hair  stands  on  end,  when  you  are  depicting  the  fu 
ture  calamities  which  shall  befall  your  country.  God  of 
heaven!  grant  that  your  prophecies  may  never  be  ac 
complished!  I  cannot,  however,  help  indulging  the 
hope,  that  the  events  of  her  history,  although  partak* 


25 

ing,  no  doubt,  of  that  commixture  of  prosperity  and 
adversity  which  is  the  common  lot  of  nations  as  well 
as  individuals,  will  be  less  shocking  and  disastrous 
than  you  have  portrayed  them.  On  this  point,  I  would 
say  as  Cicero  did  of  his  anticipation  of  immortality,  of 
which  the  sceptical  philosophers  by  their  controversies 
and  doubtful  disputations  would  have  bereft  him,  if  my 
hope  be  delusory,  it  is  an  agreeable  delusion  and  I 
wish  not  to  be  undeceived.  I  would  not  sadden  and 
torture  my  soul  by  anticipating  such  gloomy  and  hi 
deous  prospects  for  my  country,  which  after  all  may 
prove  chimerical.  If  these  dreadful  evils,  under  the 
awful  and  inscrutable  dispensations  of  heaven,  should 
at  last,  overtake  her,  it  will  be  soon  enough  to  endure 
the  miseries  they  will  inflict,  when  they  shall  have  ar 
rived.  And,  I  trust,  that  although  my  countrymen  will 
no  longer  have  a  Washington  and  Ames  to  enlighten, 
to  guide  and  to  save  them;  there  will  not  be  wanting  able 
and  devoted  patriots  who  will  be  as  prompt  in  provid 
ing  as  skilful  in  administering  a  remedy.  I  pretend  not 
to  deny,  that  the  hopes  which  I  was  disposed  to  enter 
tain,  in  reference  to  those  future  fortunes  which  the 
destinies  were  weaving  for  my  country,  were  occa 
sionally,  and  particularly  in  the  latter  part  of  my  life, 
shaded  by  the  most  painful  apprehensions,  and  that 
sometimes  my  heart  was  oppressed  and  overpowered 
by  the  settled  gloom  of  despondency;  but  I  must  be 
allowed  to  remark,  that  a  severance  of  the  union,  so 
far  from  being  the  remedy  which  I  would  have  re 
commended,  for  these  anticipated  ills,  is  the  very 

D 


26 

result  which,  above  all  others,  I  should  most  fervently 
have  deprecated.  The  plan  which  I  had  projected,  as 
is  well  known  among  my  countrymen,  in  order  to 
avoid  the  mischiefs  which  I  was  apprehensive  would 
result  to  the  union,  was  to  impart  greater  force  and 
efficiency  to  the  federal  government,  and  thereby  not 
only  enable  it  to  sustain  itself,  amidst  the  severe  con 
flicts  which  necessarily  awaited  it,  but  also  to  extend 
such  a  powerful  control  over  the  state  governments, 
its  natural  rivals,  as  would,  without  annihilating  their 
independence  or  consolidating  them  with  itself,  enable 
it  to  preserve  them  firmly  and  steadily  in  the  several 
spheres,  in  which  they  move  round  it, 

AMES. 

Ah,  there,  indeed,  General  Hamilton,  lay  the  re 
medy,  and  had  it  been  applied  in  season  would  have 
effected  a  radical  cure.  Had  your  wise  and  salutary 
counsels  been  pursued,  and  the  government,  in  its 
original  organization,  been  rendered  sufficiently  ener 
getic  to  have  perpetuated  its  powers  and  to  have  stayed 
by  its  arm  every  effort  at  separation,  then  indeed,  the 
republic  would  have  remained  secure.  But  the  time  in 
which  she  might  have  been  rescued  from  destruction, 
has  elapsed,  and  she  has  let  the  opportunity  pass  away 
unimproved,  in  which  she  might  have  foreseen  and 
avoided  the  numberless  miseries  which  are  now  com 
ing  upon  her. — The  hour  of  her  sorrow  and  anguish 
is  at  hand.  Those  hardy  sons  of  the  north,  long  tram- 
pled  upon  by  their  administration,  and  ground  as  under 


27 

a  mill-stone  by  its  measures,  are  determined  to  rise  in 
their  might  and  assert  their  claims.  Having  drunk  to 
the  very  dregs  the  cup  of  endurance  and  submission, 
they  are  at  this  moment,  prepared  to  draw  the  sword 
from  its  scabbard,  and  at  a  single  blow  sever  the  bond 
which  connects  them  to  the  union. 

HAMILTON. 

I  hold  in  too  high  estimation,  the  good  sense,  the 
intelligence  and  patriotism  of  that  reflecting  people  to 
the  east,  to  imagine,  for  a  moment,  that  they  will  per 
mit  any  provocations  to  stimulate  them  to  such  fatal  ex 
tremities.  They  who  have  hitherto  discovered  that  they 
knew  so  well  how  to  distinguish  those  limits  in  which 
a  rational  liberty  terminates  and  a  mischievous  licen 
tiousness  begins,  will  not,  on  this  occasion,  forfeit 
the  reputation  they  have  obtained,  and  by  a  single  rash 
deed  hazard  their  own  peace  and  prosperity  as  well  as 
those  of  their  sister  republics. 

AMES. 

But  why  talk  of  the  cool  and  philosophical  calcula 
tions  of  expediency  and  propriety  to  a  people  whose 
families  are  wanting  bread,  and  who  are  crushed  by 
their  government  as  in  a  wine-press?  The  eastern  peo 
ple  have  perceived  with  indignation,  for  some  time 
past,  that,  from  the  addition  of  these  new  states  and 
territories  to  the  south,  they  have  lost  all  their  influ 
ence  in  our  federal  councils  and  become  as  the  mere 
dust  of  the  balance.  The  embargo  by  precluding  the 


interchanges  of  commerce,  checked  the  circulation  of 
the  very  life-blood  of  these  countries.  All  these  things 
they  have  borne  with  patience  and  magnanimity.  To 
this  fatal  measure  has  succeeded  a  war  the  most  odious 
to  them  in  its  origin  and  character,  and  while  a  cruel 
and  ferocious  enemy  is  let  loose  against  them,  they  arc 
left  by  the  government  vulnerable  and  defenceless  at 
every  point;  and  to  fill  their  cup  of  grievances  to  the 
brim,  while  thus  the  sources  of  their  wealth  and  pros 
perity  are  dried  up,  while  in  a  state  of  perpetual  dis 
quietude  from  the  apprehensions  of  sudden  and  de 
structive  inroads  from  the  enemy,  the  scanty  wealth 
they  have  left  is  rifled  by  the  administration,  and  the 
flower  of  the  citizens  dragged  from  those  firesides 
which  it  is  their  province  to  defend,  to  carry  on  a  war 
of  conquest  and  ambition.  Will  that  brave  people 
tamely  submit  to  such  aggravated  wrongs  as  these? 
They  will  not — They  will  forcibly  sever  themselves 
from  that  national  government  over  whose  measures 
they  have  lost  all  influence,  and  which  instead  of  be 
ing  known  to  them  as  a  good  government  should  be, 
by  the  benefits  which,  under  its  guardian  care,  it  dis 
penses,  is  recognized  only  in  the  miseries  it  inflicts. 

HAMILTON. 

Whatever  may  be  the  real  or  supposed  grievances 
they  suffer,  if  they  act  wisely  they  will  form  no  rash 
determination  nor  adopt  any  violent  measures,  during 
their  present  resentment  and  irritation.  The  passions  are 
wretched  counsellors  and  still  more  wretched  guides. 


In  reference  to  the  loss  of  influence  in  the  national 
councils  and  upon  the  national  measures  of  which  they 
complain,  and  of  which  I  am  free  to  admit  they  do 
not  complain  without  reason,  I  would  indulge  myself 
in  a  few  observations,  which,  I  think,  may  present  to 
the  eastern  section  of  our  country  some  consolation 
for  the  present  sufferings  they  sustain  from  the  war. 
There  is  evidently  arising  in  our  country  at  this  time, 
as  is  perceptible  to  the  eye  of  every  philosophic  ob 
server,  a  southern  and  a  northern  or  eastern  influence, 
which  for  some  time  to  come  will  be  perpetually  con- 
tending  for  the  mastery;  and  this  conflict,  if  it  prove 
not  the  rock  upon  which  the  republic  immediately 
splits,  will,  at  all  events,  give  rise  to  many  of  the  fu 
ture  incidents  of  her  history.  Sometimes  the  southern 
scale  will  preponderate,  and  at  other  times  the  eastern. 
The  eastern  influence,  moreover,  as  it  is  characteristi 
cally  commercial,  will  gradually  extend  itself  until  it 
embraces  the  whole  of  the  Atlantic  states,  for  the  At 
lantic  ocean  itself  forms  to  these  states  a  strong,  and 
as  it  should  be,  indissoluble  chain  of  connection.  On 
all  great  emergencies,  these  states  will,  I  am  convinced, 
at  no  distant  period,  uniformly  co-operate  with  each 
other.  The  eastern  states,  therefore,  need  not  be  im 
patient  under  that  temporary  suspension  of  their  power 
in  the  federal  government,  which  is  the  cause  of  their 
present  dissatisfaction  and  alarm.  By  wise  and  mode 
rate  counsels,  by  adopting  and  firmly  persevering-  in 
those  plans  of  policy  which  will  contribute  to  their 
best  and  permanent  interests,  they  will,  in  their  turn 


30 

prevail,  the  present  clouds  which  obscure  the  political 
state  of  their  country  will  be  dispersed,  and  the  day- 
spring  of  peace,  affluence  and  prosperity  again  visit 
their  borders.  At  any  rate,  before  they  resort  to  the 
mad  expedient  of  seceding  from  the  union  to  obtain 
relief  from  their  present  sufferings,  let  them  seriously 
reflect  and  weigh  well  the  consequences.  Were  they 
separated  from  their  sister  states,  what  would  be 
their  condition?  Would  it  be  meliorated?  To  avoid 
present  inconveniences  and  injuries,  may  they  not  pull 
down  upon  their  heads  the  whole  fabric  of  civil  so 
ciety,  although  like  Sampson  they  themselves  may  be 
crushed  amidst  the  ruins?  To  escape  the  beatings  of 
the  impending  storm  which  cannot  long  endure,  may 
they  not  plunge  into  an  abyss  in  which  they  may 
perish  forever? 

WASHINGTON. 

I  have  listened  to  your  discussion,  gentlemen,  with 
the  most  profound  interest  and  attention,  as  this  is  a 
subject  which  has  lately  occupied  a  large  share  of  my 
reflections  and  awakened  within  me  the  most  painful 
solicitude.  We  who  have  attained  to  these  realms  of 
light  and  happiness,  having  our  minds  cleansed  from 
the  discolouring  prejudices  and  prepossessions  of  party, 
can  view  every  subject  offered  to  our  contemplation 
in  the  calm  lights  of  a  mild  and  just  philosophy.  Let 
us,  therefore,  proceed  to  a  cool  and  dispassionate  con 
sideration  of  the  subject  whose  merits  you  are  now 
canvassing. 


31 

I  perceive  with  no  little  pain  and  displeasure,  that 
the  dissolution  of  a  union  formerly  regarded  as  sacred, 
as  the  ark  of  the  covenant,  which  no  one  presumed  to 
touch  but  with  veneration  and  awe,  has  now  become  a 
topic  of  ordinary  and  familiar  conversation  among  my 
countrymen,  its  advantages  and  disadvantages  are 
coolly  descanted  upon,  and  there  are  not  wanting  those 
who  are  daring  enough  to  declare  it  as  their  opinion, 
that  it  has  become  both  necessary  and  expedient.  Now, 
this  is  a  circumstance  deeply  to  be  regretted  by  every 
American  patriot,  as  we  all  know  how  rapid  is  often 
times  the  transition  from  the  habitual  contemplation  of 
an  act  to  the  guilty  performance  of  it.  Divines  inform 
us,  that  in  order  to  preserve  ourselves  from  the  con 
tamination  and  seductive  influence  of  vice,  and  perse 
vere  in  a  course  of  virtuous  conduct,  it  is  necessary, 
not  only  that  our  outward  deportment  should  be  un 
exceptionable,  but  even  our  imaginations  should  not 
be  allowed  to  be  vitiated  by  the  intrusion  of  illicit 
images  and  thoughts.  The  maxim  is  not  without  apti 
tude  in  its  application  to  the  present  case.  States  so 
happily  confederated  together  as  are  those  of  America 
for  the  promotion  of  important  and  national  purposes, 
should  ever  regard  the  ties  which  connect  them  as 
consecrated,  and  should  never  permit  themselves  to 
think  it  possible  that  there  can  be  a  dismemberment 
of  their  empire.  It  is  dangerous  even  to  indulge  them 
selves  in  such  trains  of  thinking,  and  the  nation  cannot 
too  speedily  by  a  kind  of  moral  expiation,  purify  her 
self  from  the  impiety  of  having  yielded  to  them, 


AMES. 

Where,  then,  is  the  redress  which  a  state  or  num 
ber  of  states  is  to  obtain  when  it  feels  itself  oppressed 
and  ruined  by  the  measures  of  the  administration?  Is 
there  no  point  at  which  the  endurance  of  a  people 
must  cease? 

WASHINGTON. 

They  can  obtain  no  other  redress  and  they  should 
desire  no  other,  than  that  which  is  extended  to  them 
in  the  provisions  of  the  constitution.  I  allude  not  now 
particularly  to  the  controversy  which  the  eastern  sec 
tion  of  our  union  is  carrying  on  with  the  general  go 
vernment.  It  falls  not  within  my  plan  to  decide  upon 
the  merits  of  that  case.  If  we  wish  that  our  federal 
government,  the  offspring  of  our  own  wisdom  and  the 
adoption  of  our  own  choice,  should  ultimately  suc 
ceed,  and  we  may  be  assured  that  with  its  success  are 
intimately  connected  the  vital  interests  of  this  country, 
there  are  certain  great  and  fundamental  principles,  to 
which,  amidst  the  bitterest  conflicts  of  party,  we  should 
all  steadily  and  pertinaciously  adhere.  Within  the  boun 
daries  prescribed  by  the  constitution,  let  the  parties 
rage,  foam  and  exhaust  their  animosity,  but  let  them 
never  dare  overstep  those  sacred  limits.  It  is  a  mockery 
to  have  a  written  constitution  and  laws,  unless  they  be 
rigidly  and  scrupulously  adhered  to.  But  to  return  to 
the  point  we  are  now  investigating.  What  kind  of  re 
dress  of  grievances,  is  that  which  the  eastern  states 


33 

would  obtain  by  a  severance  of  the  union?  It  would 
be  the  redress  of  a  man  who,  in  a  paroxysm  of  rage 
against  an  adversary,  cuts,  maims  and  perhaps  destroys 
himself.  When  I  hear  men  talking  coolly  and  with 
apparent  unconcern,  about  the  separation  of  the  States, 
I  imagine  I  see  children  playing  with  edged  tools,  or 
in  their  wanton  gambols,  scattering  sparks  in  those 
places  in  which  they  may  kindle  those  subterranean 
fires  that  produce  an  earthquake.  Men  are,  surely, 
ignorant  of  the  long  train  of  miseries  and  calamities 
which  an  event  of  this  nature,  may,  and  in  all  probabi 
lity,  will  draw  upon  them.  I  can  regard  the  separation 
of  the  American  States,  take  place  at  what  period  it 
may,  and  from  whatever  quarter  it  may  come,  under 
no  other  similitude  than  that  of  opening  in  the  new 
world,  the  box  of  Pandora.  More  evils  than  imagina 
tion  can  picture  or  the  tongue  of  an  angel  adequately 
describe,  would  be  its  inevitable  results. 

AMES. 

But  why,  General  Washington?  Whence  the  neces 
sity  of  such  direful  consequences?  Could  not  the 
eastern  states  which  entered  voluntarily  into  the  fede 
ral  compact,  from  the  prospect  of  the  advantages  which 
would  redound  to  them,  now  that  they  find  it  produc 
tive  of  mischief,  peaceably  retire  from  the  union? 

WASHINGTON. 

Impossible — It  would  be  to  defeat  the  great  and 
leading  objects  for  which  a  federal  government  was  in- 

E 


34 

stituted.  Why  was  this  government  established  with 
authority  paramount  to  all  others,  and  with  an  influ 
ence  diffusing  itself  over  every  part?  For  the  express 
purpose  of  preserving  those  parts  from  violent  colli 
sions  and  final  separations.  In  the  preliminary  article 
to  the  constitution  it  is  declared  that  that  instrument 
was  adopted  to  "  preserve  a  more  perfect  union  and 
promote  domestic  tranquillity."  Must  not  the  govern 
ment,  then,  be  invested  with  powers  competent  to  effect 
these  purposes?  And  would  not  all  of  them  be  at  once 
defeated  were  the  states  allowed  to  separate  from  each 
other  at  their  discretion?  It  was  foreseen  by  those 
illustrious  patriots  and  ,sages  who  at  that  time  wielded 
the  destinies  of  the  nation,  that  an  association  of  states 
depending  for  its  continuance  upon  the  will  of  the  par 
ties,  and  capable  of  being  severed  whenever  the  inte 
rest,  passion  or  caprice  of  any  one  or  any  number 
should  propel  it  to  such  a  measure,  would,  like  the 
Amphyctionic  and  Achaean  leagues  of  Greece,  the 
Helvetic  republic,  and  many  others  which  might  be 
enumerated,  prove  as  ineffectual  to  its  ends  as  a  rope  of 
sand.  It  was  for  the  precise  purpose  of  remedying  the 
imperfections  of  such  a  system  that  the  sublime  idea 
was  suggested  and  carried  into  execution,  of  modelling 
a  great  national  government,  which  extending  its  control 
over  the  whole  should  bind  them  strongly  and  insepa 
rably  together,  without  absorbing  them  into  its  vortex, 
as  the  sun  by  its  attractive  power  preserves  the  planets 
in  their  spheres.  When  the  states  entered  into  this  so 
lemn  compact,  they  relinquished  the  right  of  retiring 


35 

from  it  at  their  pleasure,  and  for  any  violations  of  its 
stipulations  rendered  themselves  amenable  to  the  tri 
bunal  of  the  union,  which  has  a  clear  and  undoubted 
right  to  compel  them  to  comply  with  the  terms  of  their 
agreement.  Besides,  what  sort  of  government  is  that 
which  has  not  the  power  to  coerce  the  submission  and 
obedience  of  the  citizens,  to  every  just  and  legitimate 
requisition?  Let  it,  therefore,  be  considered  as  a  ruled 
case,  a  settled  and  established  point,  that  if  at  any  time 
any  state  in  the  union  or  any  number  of  states  con 
jointly,  shall  determine  to  withdraw  itself  from  tjie,con- 
federacy,  it  is  the  province  and  the  duty  of  the  federal 
government  to  compel  it  to  return  to  that  connec 
tion. 

AMES. 

I  suspect  that  in  all  such  cases,  which  always  pre 
suppose  a  great  degree  of  popular  excitement,  the  states 
will  not  be  withheld  from  accomplishing  their  end,  by 
nice  points  of  political  casuistry. 

WASHINGTON. 

Let  them  be  withheld,  then,  from  an  anticipation  of 
the  horrible  results.  Suppose  that  the  Eastern  states, 
(I  do  not  believe,  for  a  moment,  that  any  such  things 
are  to  be  apprehended  from  that  moral  and  religious 
people,)  but  suppose,  that,  in  a  paroxysm  of  resent 
ment,  worked  up  to  phrenzy  by  their  opposition  to 
the  administration,  they  should  enter  into  the  fatal  de 
termination  to  secede  from  the  union,  what  would  be 


the  consequences?  At  the  same  moment  that  they 
form  this  rash  determination,  they  let  loose  the  sword 
from  its  scabbard.  With  one  hand  they  sever  the  bond 
which  connects  them  to  the  union,  and  with  the  other, 
hurl  the  firebrand  of  civil  discord.  Could  the  general 
government  look  on  with  indifference  and  pusillani 
mity,  and  not  raise  an  arm  to  reduce  to  submission  its 
refractory  members?  It  could  not.  It  would  be  unfaith 
ful  to  the  powers  with  which  the  people  have  entrusted 
it,  unfaithful  to  the  confederation,  to  its  own  honour  and 
duty,  to  the  seceding  states  themselves,  to  the  glory  of 
the  republic,  if  it  did.  The  attempt  is,  then,  made  to 
compel  the  recreant  states  to  return  to  their  allegiance. 
An  army  is  set  on  foot  by  the  government,  and  a  war 
commenced  for  this  purpose.  Say,  that  it  is  successful 
in  the  horrid  enterprise.  At  what  a  dreadful  price  has 
its  victory  been  purchased?  What  hecatombs  of  vic 
tims  have  been  offered  up  to  the  demon  of  civil  dis 
cord,  what  kindred  have  imbrued  their  hands  in  each 
other's  blood,  what  scenes  of  slaughter  and  cruelty 
have  been  exhibited  by  those  parties  whose  sentiments 
of  hostility  have  only  been  exasperated  by  their  former 
intimacy,  what  arrows  of  resentment  left  festering  in 
the  heart,  what  seeds  of  animosity  sown  that  will  spring 
up  and  grow  into  future  wars! 

AMES. 

But  they  would  not  be  successful.  Those  hardy 
sons  of  the  north,  inured  to  toil  from  their  earliest 
years,  habituated  to  hardships  and  fatigue,  and  accus. 


37 

tomed  to  breathe  the  atmosphere  of  freedom,  could 
not  be  subdued.  What!  shall  they  who  were  rocked  in 
the  very  cradle  of  liberty,  who,  in  our  revolutionary 
war  first  raised  its  sacred  standard  and  fought  most 
bravely  under  it,  when  once  they  have  again  reared 
that  animating  symbol,  ever  strike  it  to  an  enemy? 

WASHINGTON. 

Such  men  should  be  the  last  to  raise  it  against  a  Re 
public,  founded  by  their  wisdom  and  cemented  with 
their  blood.  I  again  repeat,  that  I  am  confident,  that 
intelligent,  brave  and  magnanimous  people,  will  never 
drive  matters  to  such  dreadful  excesses.  We  are  only 
supposing  such  a  case  to  make  good  our  argument. 
Let  it  be  as  you  say,  that  the  government  has  been 
foiled  in  its  attempt  to  reduce  them.  Still  the  effort 
has  produced  the  evils  before  enumerated.  Still  all 
those  agonizing  scenes  have  been  exhibited  which  fur 
nish  matter  for  the  tragic  muse.  If  we  wish  to  wake 
our  souls  to  the  highest  pitch  of  horror,  we  have  only 
to  peruse  the  histories  of  Greece,  Rome,  England, 
France,  or  any  other  country  during  their  civil  wars. 
What,  then,  must  the  acting  of  such  dreadful  scenes 
be?  In  the  mean  time  what  a  spectacle  olf  scorn  and  de 
rision,  do  we  present  to  the  nations  of  Europe,  some 
of  whom  would  not  want  the  malignity  to  rejoice  in 
our  misfortunes!  A  number  of  states  have  attempted 
to  secede  from  the  rest,  the  general  government 
has  exerted  its  utmost  force  to  prevent  it,  but  in 
vain,  the  disaffected  members  have  made  good  their 


defection  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet.  What  a  triumph 
to  our  enemies!  What  humiliation  to  our  friends!  The 
glory  of  our  republic  is  gone,  her  power  sapped,  her 
pride  humbled,  the  exalted  rank  she  held  among  the 
nations  is  forfeited,  never  to  be  regained;  she  is  become 
the  object  of  contempt,  and  contumely,  to  those  who 
formerly  envied  and  feared  her  as  a  rival.  Our  bitterest 
enemies  could  not  imprecate  upon  our  heads  a  severer 
punishment.  But  let  us  not  stop  here — Let  us  pursue 
the  matter  to  its  remotest  consequences,  following  in 
our  progress  the  lights  of  history.    The  republic  is 
now  forcibly  divided,  and  two,  or  as  some  projectors 
in   politics  will  have   it,  three    smaller   republics,  a 
southern,  middle  and  northern  one,  formed  out  of  it. 
Thus  divided,  are  we  to  expect  to  enjoy  the  halcyon 
days  of  peace,  plenty  and  prosperity?  By  no  means.  As 
before  we  might  read  our  history  in  the  civil  wars  of 
Greece,  Rome,  England  and  France,  so  now  we  may 
read  the  continuation  of  it,  in  the  wars  which  were 
waged  between  the  rival  republics  of  Rome  and  Car 
thage,    of  Athens   and   Laced agmon.    Parties  would 
soon  spring  up,  more  violent  and  embittered  in  pro 
portion  to  the  limited  space  within  which  their  virulence 
was  confined,  and  convulse  with  still  more  portentous 
throes,  these  new  republics.  A  thousand  causes  of  con 
troversy  and  animosity  would  arise,  as  surely  as  the 
malignant  passions  of  the  human  heart  would  continue 
to  operate  upon  the  affairs  of  mankind,  and  these  would 
lead  to  the  most  rancorous,  ferocious  and  bloody  wars. 
These  contests,  animosities  and  wars  would  be  en- 


39 

couraged  and  fomented  by  foreign  nations,  who  al 
though  now  they  would  despise  us,  would  set  in 
operation  all  their  arts  of  intrigue  and  diplomatic 
seduction.  These  arts  and  intrigues,  which  during  the 
pure  and  vigorous  days  of  our  union,  could  make  no 
impression  upon  us,  when  divided  and  weakened, 
would  obtain  a  deadly  influence  in  our  councils.  We 
should  soon  see  one  of  these  rival  republics  enlisted 
on  the  side  of  England  and  another  on  that  of  France, 
in  those  long  and  sanguinary  contests,  which  they 
have  maintained  with  each  other  through  every  period 
of  their  history,  and  which  are  at  this  time  asleep  for 
a  season  only  to  be  speedily  renewed  with  exacerbated 
feelings.  Thus  should  we  at  once  launch  the  barks  of 
the  petty  republics  we  had  modelled,  on  the  perilous 
and  tempestuous  sea  of  European  politics;  and  no 
sooner  should  the  standard  of  war  be  elevated  in  the 
old  world  between  the  great  rival  nations,  than  it 
would  become  the  signal  for  its  commencement  here. 
And  during  all  this  time,  what,  in  all  probability,  would 
be  the  internal  state  of  our  country?  Wars  would  rage 
with  the  utmost  violence  and  fury;  all  those  scenes 
which  for  centuries  have  been  exhibited  on  the  old 
continent  and  which  have  disquieted,  convulsed,  and 
wasted  it,  would  be  re-acted  in  the  new.  The  struggle 
for  superiority  and  pre-eminence,  would  excite  inces 
sant  commotions.  Sometimes  the  northern  force  would 
prevail,  and  at  other  times  the  southern;  but  whether  the 
preponderating  power  approached  from  the  one  quarter 
or  the  other,  were  ingendered  in  a  southern  or  northern 


40 

clime,  it  would  equally  prove  a  destrudj^  tempest.  It 
would  be  the  difference  only  between  the  Siroc  and  arc 
tic  storm.  During  this  period  also,  the  relations  between 
the  different  republics  being  radically  changed,  and 
those  who  were  formerly  amicable  and  sister  common 
wealths  being  converted  into  jealous  and  hostile  states, 
their  political,  civil  and  military  institutions  are  un 
dergoing  fundamental  alterations.  Having  forfeited 
along  with  numberless  other  inestimable  advantages, 
that  which  we  derive  from  the  remoteness  of  our 
situation  from  any  power  which  in  case  of  hostility 
can  become  formidable  to  us,  our  governments  must 
be  so  modelled  as  to  be  accommodated  to  our  new 
situation,  and  suited  to  the  exigencies  to  which  they 
must  be  now  exposed.  The  mild  genius  of  a  republi 
can  government,  our  boast  and  pride,  at  this  time,  the 
boon  for  which  we  expended  our  blood  and  treasure,  so 
adequate  to  all  purposes  of  our  present  defence  and 
prosperity,  would  not  be  sturdy  and  robust  enough  in 
its  structure  to  repel  the  sudden  invasions  of  formida 
ble  armies.  Each  republic,  vulnerable  at  every  pore, 
must,  now  that  it  has  a  rival  and  enemy  at  its  door, 
commence  adequate  preparations  of  defence.  The 
banks  of  the  Hudson  and  Potomac  and  the  shores  of 
the  Atlantic  must  be  lined  with  fortifications  erected 
at  immense  expense,  and  these  fortifications  manned 
with  veteran  troops.  Large  standing  armies,  which  all 
agree  are  so  dangerous  to  liberty,  must  now  be  kept 
up  in  time  of  peace  in  order  to  provide  against  the 
exigencies  of  war.  Thus  the  supreme  magistrate  in 


41 

each  commonwealth  has  at  his  disposal  a  perpetually 
standing  force.  In  seasons  of  extreme  difficulty  and 
peril,  he  is  invested  with  dictatorial  powers.  This  ex 
periment  is  repeated  but  a  few  times,  before  some 
Cassar  or  Cromwell  arises,  more  bold  than  his  prede 
cessors,  who  rendering  himself  popular  with  the  army, 
bribes  them  to  his  interest,  seizes  upon  the  reins  of 
government  and  makes  himself  master  of  his  coun 
try,  and  then  as  a  military  despot  rules  it  with  a  rod 
of  iron.  This  is  not  fictitious  history,  it  is  real  and 
written  in  Roman  and  Grecian  characters. 

Thus  together  with  unnumbered  other  blessings, 
would  the  American  nation,  in  the  dissolution  of  their 
union,  pave  the  way  to  the  final  wreck  of  their  inva 
luable  rights.  The  happiness  of  our  present  situation 
on  the  globe,  more  than  any  other  circumstance,  af 
fords  us  the  best  security  for  the  permanence  and 
perpetuity  of  our  free  institutions.  Circumstances,  it 
has  been  said,  make  men.  If  this  maxim  be  liable  to 
objection  when  applied  to  individuals,  it  is  emphati 
cally  true  that  circumstances  make  governments. 
Place  England  upon  the  continent  of  Europe  by  the 
side  of  those  powerful  monarchies,  and  she  could  no 
longer  retain  the  freedom  of  her  present  constitution. 
Transfer  our  republic  to  the  same  situation,  and  she 
could  no  more  defend  herself,  with  her  present  form 
of  government,  against  attacks  from  those  powers, 
than  the  infant  arm  could  wield  the  battle-ax.  It  would 
become  indispensably  necessary  to  effect  those  great 

F 


and  important  purposes  for  which  governments  are  in* 
stituted,  to  assimilate  them  in  a  great  measure  in  activity 
and  energy  to  those  of  the  states  that  surround  us.  The 
Americans,  therefore,  cannot  too  highly  appreciate  the 
happiness  of  their  present  situation  on  the  globe,  and  if 
by  one  rash  deed  they  will  forfeit  this  advantage  to 
gether  with  unnumbered  others  connected  with  it,  it 
will  be  an  act  of  suicide  and  insanity  unexampled  in 
the  history  of  mankind.  To  sum  up  in  few  words  the 
whole  matter.    With  the  preservation  of  our  union, 
are  indissolubly  connected  our  peace  abroad  and  tran 
quillity  at  home,  our  independence  and  glory  as  a 
nation,  the  freedom  of  our  institutions  both  political 
and  civil,  our  future  greatness  and  prosperity.  Let  us 
never  cease  to  regard  that  union  as  sacred,  which  was 
constructed  by  the  hands  of  sages  and  cemented  with 
the  blood  of  our  revolutionary  heroes.  Let  us  venerate 
and  religiously  preserve  our  present  constitution  as 
the  palladium  of  our  rights,  our  ark  of  safety.  Let  the 
states  confederated  together  be  considered  as  firmly 
fixed  in  their  stations  as  the  constellations  of  heaven, 
or  as  the  planets  that  move  round  the  sun.  The  gene 
ral  government,   whatever   clouds   may  occasionally 
obscure  its  lustre,  is  to  this  country  what  that  great 
luminary  is  to  the  solar  system.  It  diffuses  through 
it  the  animating  and  fructifying  light  of  peace,  do 
mestic   quiet,   liberty   and   prosperity;  while   by  its 
gentle  and  controlling  influence  it  makes  the  states  to 
move    in  harmony  and  order  through  their  several 
spheres.  We  have  planted  in  the  midst  of  us  the  tree 


43 

of  liberty,  let  none  of  its  branches  be  lopt  off,  but  let 
it  grow  and  flourish  that  our  children  and  our  chil 
dren's  children  may  rejoice  under  its  refreshing  shade, 
and  pluck  and  live  upon  its  goodly  fruits.  Let  the 
permanence  of  our  present  constitution,  and  an  indis 
soluble  union  of  the  states,  be  written  upon  our  Capi 
tol  in  the  blood  of  our  revolutionary  heroes;  let  it  be 
inserted  in  our  litanies  and  mingled  with  our  most 
fervent  prayers  to  heaven,  let  it  be  inscribed  upon  the 
door  posts  of  our  houses,  as  a  sign  to  preserve  us  from 
the  sword  of  the  destroying  angel  of  civil  discord, — 
Let  us  cherish  our  union,  as  the  source  of  our  country's 
prosperity,  the  foundation  of  her  future  greatness  and 
glory,  the  depository  of  our  invaluable  rights,  and  our 
best  safeguard  against  unnumbered  ills. 


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